Mueller Report: NFL Did Not See Ray Rice Elevator Video

After what seems like a lengthy period of time, ex-FBI director Robert Mueller has finally released his report about his investigation into the NFL and Ray Rice case: he was tasked to see if the NFL, at any level, received the elevator video, in which Rice struck his now wife, prior to TMZ leaking it.

In the opening pages, the document stated they were looking to answer two questions: “whether anyone at the League had received or seen the in-elevator video prior to its public release on Sept.  8; and what other evidence was obtained by, provided to, or available to the League in the course of its investigation.”

As for the answer to the first question, he did not find any evidence that the NFL possessed a copy of the tape: “we have found no evidence that anyone at the League received or viewed the in-elevator video prior to its public release. Likewise, we have found no evidence of a woman at the League acknowledging receipt of that video in a voicemail message left on April 9, 2014.”

And with the second question, he commented that the League’s handling of the Rice matter was consistent to how they treated all pending court cases. Their process “reflects the League’s longstanding practice of deferring to law enforcement—a practice that can foster an environment in which it is less important to understand precisely what a player did than to understand how and when the criminal justice system addresses the event. In this case, that deference led to deficiencies in the League’s collection and analysis of information during its investigation. We conclude that there was substantial information about the incident that should have put the League on notice of a need to undertake a more thorough investigation to obtain available evidence of precisely what occurred inside the elevator.”

In the end, lets hope that the NFL could finally put this to rest. It is certainly a sad incident, but at least it had some positive repercussions: it helped the league redevelop their policy on domestic abuse and other violent offenses, while it also reformed their harsh policies on drug use.

If you want to see the full report, which is over 80 pages, you can check it out here.